Too Far, Yet Too Close
by Wolf's Honour
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto are two sides of the same coin, both going in opposite directions. Yet their paths all lead to the same place and a confrontation of ideals shall be inevitable. Follow the paths of these individuals and others as circumstances take them to untamed, chaotic lands, where everyone's paths shall cross and their destinies revealed and ultimately decided. Non-Yaoi


_**Too Far, Yet Too Close**_

_By: Wolf's Honour_

_"_speech_."_

_-'thoughts.'-_

**_"Jutsu"_**

**_Songs I listened to while writing:_**

**_Gackt_****_ – _**_End of Silence_

_**J. Cole**__ – Killers_

_**2pac **__– Runnin' (Livin to Die)_

_**Summary: **Sasuke and Naruto are two sides of the same coin, both going in opposite directions. Yet their paths all lead to the same place and a confrontation of ideals shall be inevitable. Follow the paths of these individuals and others as circumstances take them to untamed, chaotic lands, where everyone's paths shall cross and their destinies revealed and ultimately decided._

_Inspired by Isilithix's __**Journey of a Ronin Ninja**_

_I do not own the _**_Naruto_**_ or _**_Samurai Warriors Series_**_. They belong to _**_Kishimoto_**_ and _**_Koei, Inc._**

* * *

'* * *'

The cawing of a crow could be heard across the corpse-ridden and blood-filled fields. The black bird flew up from a burnt corpse it was perched on into the moon-lit skies, one of many as a flock of crows feasted on the hundreds of corpses that lied everywhere on the warm ground. Smokey clouds loomed in the air above from the fires that were present mere hours ago, hovering over the remains of the once prosperous village.

In the center of the corpses, of the mangled and burnt bodies, stood a lone samurai, armed with only a katana in his right hand. His long smooth raven-colored hair flew with the breeze which reeked of the odor of the dead, his handsome face, his lavender-colored armor and kimono smeared with dirt and the blood of those he had slain today. He slowly walked past the corpses all around him, observing the aftermath of the massacre he had spearheaded.

"So this is a land without war," he thought aloud, not once taking his eyes off the horrific sight before him. A sick, disgusting feeling grew in the pit of his stomach and grew worse with every step he took. A small, humorless chuckle escaped his lips as he held back tears of shame. "There is no struggle now... I made sure of that."

He stopped; his eyes widened as he saw the dead remains of a woman and what appeared to be a newborn in her arms, as if she had tried to protect the child from the carnage and flames that had destroyed this place.

He could barely contain the torment he felt, his resolve collapsing within him. His grief, his suffering, and his _guilt_ for those he had slain; all of it continued to build and build and build until he felt like he could no longer bear it. The samurai lost his grip on his blade, the soul of his ancestors and his honor, fell to the ground. He didn't bother to try and pick it back up. He did not deserve the gift from his mother. The blade, which was once the symbol of his honor and loyalty, did nothing but simply increase his shame.

He took several heavy steps towards the woman and child.

"What...what was I thinking?"

He fell to his knees, uncaring of whether or not he continued to dirty his attire and hesitantly reached out for the woman and child that lay dead before him. His hand was mere inches away from the corpses before he pulled back in haste, as if his hand had been burnt by the flames which had long since died out. Tears ran down his face as he held back a sob, unable to continuing contain the guilt and anguish which gripped his very soul. He curled and slammed his fist into the ground repeatedly.

"How could I have so blindly followed the orders of a man that would see any and all who oppose him killed?! How could I kill innocent people?!" He snarled. His tears hit the ground as he bowed his head lowly before the remains, his eyes shut tightly to stop the flow of salty liquid from escaping.

"I'm sorry… I'm _so_ sorry…"

There was only one way for him to atone for this. Only one way for him to pay for the lives that he had taken. There was only one way and yet he hesitated all the same.

"Why are you still here?" a voice spoke, his words and tone all too familiar to the man.

The samurai's eyes snapped open and, ever so slowly, looked over his shoulder to the source of where he heard the voice. From the shadows of a collapsed and burnt building emerged a young man wearing a white kimono opened to reveal his lean chest, dark blue pants with a blue cloth hanging from halfway around his abdomen to his knees, a thick dark purple rope belt tied around his waist that held the blue cloth, and black open sandals that stretched from the foot to the bottom of the knee where the pants were tucked in to. The young man was staring intently at him with his crimson eyes, menacing and demonic in appearance.

The samurai looked away from the crimson-eyed shinobi, his sight retuning to the remains of the corpses.

"Your lord's army has already left. Why do you remain? "

The crimson-eyed shinobi looked at the sight of dead that surrounded the two, outwardly unphased by the dead and the odor of death which plagued this place now. Inwardly, however, was another matter entirely. He was horrified, he was disgusted, but above all that… he was angry. He was angry as to the real reason behind the attack and genocide of this village and who was truly responsible for said attack.

Taking his gaze away from the dead and back to the living samurai, he asked, "What is it that you hope to find here, Mitsuhide?"

The samurai known as Mitsuhide let out another small, humorless chuckle before he answered. "An answer... as to why I so blindly follow this _demon king_."

"To bring peace and unity to your homeland," the shinobi said as if quoting someone. "At least, that was what you told me when you first brought me here."

Mitsuhide responded with nothing at first. When he had first met the crimson-eyed shinobi and his master, he had indeed told them why he followed and defended his lord when he was asked on separate occasions. The very words that the shinobi had just spoken were indeed his own...

Yet now, after what he had witness, after what he had _done_ in the name of _peace_ and _unity_, he now found it near unbelievable that he had once uttered those very words. The words tasted like venom in his mouth as he muttered, "Peace" and "Unity" beneath his breath.

After a few moments of silence, Mitsuhide regained his bearings and lifted his head up.

"My dream… was to bring an end to this state of constant war, so I sought a lord capable of doing so. For years I wandered in search of such a one and found him in my lord. I serve him because I believed he could end the suffering that this land's people have endured for decades and still currently endure.

His hand curled back into a fist, his anger and shame rising. "I would serve anyone who could, unconditionally and without hesitance. That is how I justified all the bloodshed!"

The young shinobi waited, making sure he was finished. He stopped briefly to pick up the samurai's katana from the ground and then he asked, "If you feel this way, why are you still here?"

The troubled soul was silent for a moment, turning his head and body so he could look up into the eyes of the young man that stood mere feet away from him. The tomoes in the shinobi's eyes, which were visible before him from this distance, were spinning slowly in an unnatural way as he stared at his katana before retuning his sight back into Mitsuhide's own.

"Why am I here?"

"If you wished to follow him to uniting the land, then you would be at Azuchi at his side right now." The young shinobi pointed out. "If what you said is true, Mitsuhide, then you would not be here, lamenting the loss of life."

Mitsuhide looked away for a brief moment, thinking on what the shinobi had said, before looking back. His eyes widened when he found that the crimson-eyed shinobi had closed most of the distance between them, now standing a mere arm's length away. The samurai found himself being looked down upon by the shinobi, as if he were awaiting judgment from a shinigami. A bead of cold sweat fell formed and slide from his forehead down his face.

"No… instead you remained behind to take responsibility for what you had done, for the lives you had taken and ordered to be taken. You, alone, stayed to carry the burden of those souls…" He grabbed the blade from the center of the sheath and held it out before Mitsuhide, his crimson eyes narrowing down on him. "And therein… lies your real strength."

"Wha… What do you mean?" Mitsuhide asked, confusion growing in his mind.

"If a land of peace is what you desire, then atone for what you have done, for all the blood you have spilled with this blade… and seize this land for yourself!"

Mitsuhide looked at the shinobi with a look of disbelief and surprise, as if what he had just said was utterly ridiculous. But slowly, ever so slowly, the samurai looked at his blade which was held before him and began to ponder and absorb what the shinobi had just said. He did have the troops necessary to do so, a domain of his own, and talented officers that would follow him to hell and back if need be. The only thing that stood be in the way of his dreams, of his ambition... was his lord, whom he had sworn to serve to his dying breath.

The same lord, who would see the people slain and exterminated if they uttered a word of opposition against him.

And, as if all at once, the path the shinobi had mentioned, the one he had never once considered until now, had finally revealed itself before him.

"Wait," The samurai said. "That's it. I can realize my own dream...with my own hands."

With newfound confidence and determination, Mitsuhide rose to his feet. Taking his sword from the shinobi's hand, he secured it on his left hip and looked in his crimson eyes with his own violet pools. "I can put an end to the chaos with the power that I already possess!"

With that the samurai left the field and the crimson-eyed shinobi allowed the slight tug to his cheeks form into a small smile as he followed after him.

* * *

**_'* * *'_**

**_Kyoto, Three Months Later..._**

The night had enveloped the capital of Kyoto, the silence being almost eerie throughout the city.

A man walked out of a bar in a drunken stupor, saying goodnight to his drinking companions as he made his way home. He tripped over a sleeping dog and dropped his coin purse. "Damn mutt!"

The drunken man stumbled to pick it up. He stopped short however, of grabbing it as he saw the purse and pebbles around and beneath him began to shake. He blinked and rubbed his eyes before looking back down at the purse and seeing that the pebbles had began to bounce more erratically than before. It was then that he began to hear the sounds of hundreds of horses galloping behind him.

"Da hell?" He looked between his legs to see to see if the sake was playing tricks on him.

It wasn't, as thousands of samurai riding on horseback were riding up the road he was on. The drunk's eyes nearly bulged out of his eye sockets as he quickly stood straight and jumped to the alley, getting out of the way just in time as the many samurai rode pass, making a turn on the corner of the road ahead. The man watched the scene before him with a mix of excitement and dread. Excitement from seeing the samurai and dread because only one man controlled Kyoto, the head of the Oda Clan and the samurai in the Oda army were known to kill commoners without any hesitation.

Commoners like him.

He got off his butt and ran down the alley way. He stopped in panic as he saw more samurai riding on the road at the end of the alley, followed quickly by foot-soldiers. The drunkard quickly looked around his surroundings and jumped up the wall of a building and hopped over into the other side, not willing to take his chances with the Oda troops.

However, if he hadn't been in such a rush to get away, he would have noticed that the banners the samurai flew weren't the gold crest on dark purple of the Oda that flew on nearly every fortified area of the capital.

Instead in its place was the white colored sakura flower crest on lavender of the Akechi.

* * *

'* * *'

The samurai of the Akechi moved in and surrounded a temple estate where their former lord resided. Like a storm the Akechi troops ran and surrounded the entire area, sealing it up so there was no escape. In a matter of seconds the area was completely encircled, the commanders of the Akechi forces awaited their lord's orders.

As if on cue, a section of troops in front of the temple estate moved, giving way to Akechi Mitsuhide who rode to the front of his men. The raven-haired samurai reared his horse's reins, stopping the mare. He took in the sight of temple estate with a form of nostalgia. It had felt like yesterday since he last had been here, being congratulated for his accomplishments in subduing Tango and Tamba and being hailed as the "White Falcon of the Oda."

However, this nostalgia would not stop him; he knew what he had to do, what had to be done in order to fulfill his ambitions. He would seize this land as his own and finally put an end to the chaos.

There was no going back.

He closed his eyes and brought his katana in front of him. He drew it out slowly, revealing the stainless steel which gleamed with the torches that some of his men held. He heard himself say something, a quote he had heard on multiple occasions from his former lord.

"The die… has been cast."

Throwing his the sheath to the side, Mitsuhide pointed his blade to the temple, and with determination yelled out, "The enemy… is at **Honnoji**!"

* * *

'* * *'

Sitting off the edge of the roof of the castle tower which overlooked the surrounding area, watching as Akechi's troops charged forth, setting the temple in a blaze of flames, was the crimson-eyed shinobi. He watched the incident unfold with keen interest, keeping a neutral expression the entire time. The opportunity had finally presented itself.

A young woman no older than himself appeared behind him, together with several other individuals. She bowed her head slightly before speaking.

"Sasuke-sama, it is time."

Sasuke smiled in satisfaction, his crimson eyes glowing in the darkness of the night. He stood up and unsheathed his chokuto.

"And so... it all begins here."

* * *

'* * *'

**_A/N:_** _Now let me say thank you for taking the time for reading this. If you have enjoyed it so far, please leave a review and let me know._

_And so, my story takes form. I won't lie, a great many things were running rampant in my mind when I decided to try my hand and write this. I had recently gotten a Wii and with it a game from my friend called **Samurai Warriors 3**, the sequel **Samurai Warriors 2** from **Koei**. I hadn't played Samurai Warriors in ages and once I got my hands on it I couldn't stop playing. I even bought Samurai Warriors 1 and 2 and played those as well. And I also started reading Naruto manga again after a great many years of avoiding it and after reading the recent chapters on the history of the Narutoverse and the FGNW, I thought to myself how great it would be if I Naruto and Samurai Warriors were combined._

_And as such, this was born._

_This story is a **Naruto/Koei** crossover centered on primarily Naruto and Sasuke. Yes that's right I said **Koei**, not just Samurai Warriors. I will be implementing elements of other Koei games that are related to Sengoku Japan, and which ones those are… well I'm not telling. Fact is I have big plans for this fanfiction and as such, I won't give out anything to spoil it. If any of my readers are fans of Koei games such as Samurai Warriors 2 and Kessen 3, than expect nothing but the best. There will be no Sasuke, Kakashi, or Sakura bashing, for the simple fact that it's dull and old and there is an unreasonable amount of hate towards Sasuke and the rest of Team 7._

_There are no indefinite pairings as of yet so its free game right now, so if you have a suggestion on who to pair Sasuke and Naruto with, let me know. Oh, and just so everyone is clear, this is not a Yaoi and no Yaoi pairing will be implemented._

_Again, thank you for reading and leave a review._

_In fact, I want to ask my readers what Sengoku-related Koei games you have played and, if so, who your favorite Character is. I'll tell you mine in the next update. If you haven't played any Koei games, than all I can say is that you're missing out. Aside from being a hack n' slash game, Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors does a good job at showing what the Sengoku and Three Kingdoms eras were like._

_Til then,_

_**Wolf's Honour**_


End file.
